The Fukushima nuclear meltdown has had exponential repercussions on the world. When the disaster happened, the media was all over it. People were concerned and wanted action. But very quickly, the media’s eye turned to another matter, than another, than another. Now, very few people likely think about the Fukushima disaster and what mark it made on the world.

Regardless of the lack of mainstream media attention, the Fukushima nuclear disaster is still affecting the world today. Over nearly six years now the leak from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant caused by the tsunami and preceding Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011.

Officials State The Entire Pacific Ocean is in Danger

In response to the disaster, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of Nuclear Power, established a joint IAEA Technical Cooperation (TC) project in cooperation with the Regional Cooperative Agreement (RCA) Member States. Energy News reports:

At the IAEA Board of Governors Meeting in 2015, Ambassador Glyn Davies, Permanent U.S. Representative to the IAEA, 2011: Today the Secretariat has presented to us a new Technical Cooperation project entitled “Marine benchmark study on the possible impact of the Fukushima radioactive releases in the Asia-Pacific Region.”

… Member States in the region are understandably concerned for the safety of their marine environments. The IAEA has unique expertise to offer in helping them to assess how recent events in Japan may affect their food and water resources…

The United States fully supports this project… While the Secretariat has demonstrated admirable flexibility and agility in assembling this project quickly to meet an urgent need, we recognize… extra-budgetary resources are required… My delegation is pleased to announce that the United States will immediately make available $400,000 for this new regional, Fukushima-related project… We hope this contribution will allow the project to move forward without delay…

The Marine benchmark study on the possible impact of the Fukushima radioactive releases in the Asia-Pacific Region can be viewed here. It states:

“…there have been releases of radioactively contaminated water into the marine environment neighbouring the north east coast of the island of Honshu. It is assumed that this radioactive contamination could be transported and circulated through the Pacific Ocean. Consequently, RCA Member States have expressed concern about the possible impact of these releases on their coastal zones.

“An urgent and harmonised regional approach is essential to optimise and coordinate the application of the available skills and resources in the region in order to benchmark the possible impact of this release of radioactivity…

“The area potentially affected may encompass much of the Pacific Ocean, which covers one third of the area of the globe.”

The Extent of the Fukushima Radiation Contamination

More than 80% of the radioactive material from the damaged reactors has leaked into the Pacific Ocean over the last six years. This makes the Fukushima disaster far worse than Chernobyl or Three Mile Island.

The Kuroshio Current, a Western Pacific version of the Gulf Stream, has carried much of the radioactive material out into the Pacific Ocean. Now, materials such as radioactive isotopes of cesium have started appearing on the West Coast of North America. For example, in 2015, trace amounts of cesium-134 and cesium-137 turned up in samples collected near Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.